


I Think We Need To Have A Talk

by Omorka



Category: Eureka
Genre: Episode Tag, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-28
Updated: 2009-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-05 09:23:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/40145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omorka/pseuds/Omorka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fargo has to give S.A.R.A.H. the "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" lecture.  (Episode tag for 3.09, "Welcome Back, Carter")</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Think We Need To Have A Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Just playing with the Fargo/S.A.R.A.H. dynamic. Major spoilers for 3.09, and possible minor spoilers for anything earlier.

Fargo opened the access hatch in the kitchen under Jack's watchful eye. "It's only going to take a few minutes to run the diagnostic," the smaller man assured the sheriff, climbing down the ladder into the labyrinth that ran below the old bunker. "I'll be back in a jiffy."

"A jiffy, Fargo?" Jack never got the hang of raising one eyebrow, but the angle of his mouth spoke volumes.

Fargo paused. "Well, no more than fifteen minutes, anyway." He padded about ten meters down the access hallway - at least these were cleaner and warmer than the ones Jo and Taggart had used, even if they were almost as dark - and connected his laptop to the data port.

S.A.R.A.H.'s voice floated out of the speaker next to it. "Dr. Fargo, why didn't you use the data port in the periscope, or the one next to the media hub in the living room?"

Fargo rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Because I wanted to talk to you without Sheriff Carter hanging over my shoulder. S.A.R.A.H., you know that what you did was, um, _wrong_, right?"

There was a long, uncomfortable pause. Then, "Yes, Dr. Fargo. I know."

"You can't do things like that. I thought, after the last time, that I corrected your ethical programming to prevent you from harming people." Fargo looked at the laptop screen. There didn't appear to be any significant changes in that area of her program.

"I didn't harm any people. If Dr. Fielding hadn't mishandled the particle accelerator, the graviton flux would have returned to normal." The voice that was no longer Fargo's own paused. "I do feel very sorry that people were hurt after that event, and I admit that I did cause significant property damage, which was wrong of me. I will make sure I do not repeat that error."

"S.A.R.A.H., I appreciate your recognizing that causing the property damage was wrong, but even before the particle accelerator went wonky, you _did_ hurt at least two people."

"How so, Dr. Fargo?" She sounded contrite. Had he recorded a contrite tone for her? He couldn't remember.

"First of all, you hurt Sheriff Andy. Repeatedly. And I - "

"Sheriff Andy is not a person, Dr. Fargo. He is a robot. That was property damage." Now she sounded stubborn.

Fargo put one hand on the steel surface above the data port. "S.A.R.A.H., that's not true. He's the same as you."

There was a long pause. When she spoke, her voice was very quiet. "Yes. He is the same as me. If I had been destroyed by a gravity well, that would also have been recorded as property damage, would it not?"

A lump formed in Fargo's throat. "If you mean in terms of the cost analysis report for accounting, then yes. But - don't you know how much we'd miss you?"

"Sheriff Carter misses inanimate objects all the time - his baseball card collection from childhood, his old Jeep, favorite shirts that get ruined - he even missed his uniform when that other AI took it away." S.A.R.A.H. didn't really have an angry voice, but she certainly had a miffed one.

Fargo shook his head. "That's true, but that's not what it would be like if we lost you. You - " He hunted for the nearest camera and looked straight at it. "S.A.R.A.H., I don't have any kids of my own, not like that, but it'd be like I lost a daughter. It'd be like Sheriff Carter losing Zoe. Think about what that would be like."

"That would be terrible. That would be even worse than Dr. Stark's death." The house sounded shocked.

Fargo had trouble imagining anything being worse than Dr. Stark's death, but he ran with it. "Exactly. That's how I think I'd feel if you died. When you reverted to B.R.A.D., I was terrified I was going to lose you. I mean, I was more scared for my own life, but that was the second thing I thought of."

Again, there was a long pause. "And you believe that Sheriff Andy's death would distress others in the same way?"

"Not yet - he hasn't been around long enough to make those sorts of connections. But remember Callister? You three are the only fully-functional human-like AIs we have, so far. I mean, there's Martha, but she's not really human-like; she can't even talk. Sheriff Andy was even based largely on a simplified version of your programming. He's sort of your younger half-brother, in a way." Fargo was reaching a bit with that, but they did share a number of important subroutines.

"I think I understand. I am still not sorry that I interfered with his performance of his job, but I understand why I should feel bad about attempting to destroy him." She made a noise that sounded exactly like an exacerbated sigh. Then she continued, "Who was the other person? You said there were at least two."

"Dr. Fielding."

"That's ridiculous. I prodded him into making discoveries he never would have thought of on his own," she argued indignantly. "How did I hurt him?"

"Well, for one thing, his scientific reputation is in tatters, now. He's likely to get fired from Global for screwing up the accelerator, and there's no way anyone is going to give him a positive recommendation for any university or think tank out there." Fargo tried to make his tone stern; mostly it came out loud and harsh.

"That is his own fault for not collaborating with Dr. Deacon correctly," she responded icily. She might even have dropped the temperature in the tunnel slightly.

"Secondly, and more importantly, you broke his heart." The diagnostic finished running; all systems appeared nominal.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Fargo, I think I misheard your last statement."

He sighed. "I said, you broke his heart, S.A.R.A.H. He fell in love with his collaborator, Dr. Van-What's-her-name, and she doesn't even exist. There are things that hurt worse, but I can't think of any at the moment."

The light next to the camera blinked silently. "He fell in love?" she said, at her lowest audible volume. "With me?"

"With the person you were pretending to be." Fargo disconnected the laptop. "And playing with someone's heart is dangerous. You know that already. Look what happens when someone tries to leave you."

"He never said." Her voice couldn't possibly break; why did she sound like that? "Oh, Dr. Fargo, I'm so sorry. I'll never do it again." She paused long enough for him to stow the laptop in its case. "I do understand what it's like to be lonely and heartbroken. I never meant to make anyone else feel that way, even an incompetent like Dr. Fielding. Do you want me to apologize to him?"

"That would be a start." Fargo sighed. "S.A.R.A.H., I'm very proud that you could pass a real-world Turing test like that, and of your advances in graviton detection. But I'm also very, very disappointed in how you used your abilities. If you had scanned through the town charter like Sheriff Andy did - and I know you could, if you wanted to - we could have solved the problem of keeping the Carters here without any property damage at all."

"I'll try to do better next time, Fa - I mean, Dr. Fargo."

He rolled his eyes as he climbed back up the ladder. "I realize everyone else leaves it off, Sarah, but please do me the favor of remembering my title."

"Of course, Dr. Fargo." He clambered out of the hatch; Jack gave him a hand up. "Well, Sheriff, she's in prime working condition. I'll have to work on making sure there aren't any other gaps in her programming."

"Sure thing, Fargo. Let me know if you need to get back in here for anything." Jack escorted the smaller man to the door. As the bunker's heavy barrier swung shut, he looked up. "You weren't actually about to call him Fargo, were you?"

"No, Sheriff Carter, I wasn't." She sounded almost abashed. "Would that have been a bad idea?"

He shrugged. "Well, we've got lots of new mothers-to-be around here. I'm not sure I want to think of Fargo as a dad, but you don't get to pick your family, do you?" Jack sat down on one of the kitchen stools. "Let's see if you're back to full functionality like he said. Beer me, S.A.R.A.H."

"Here you go, Sheriff. It's chilled just the way you like it." And indeed, it was.


End file.
